posted
A friend of mine back of MootSf named "Kraftstoff" inquired about the origins of Berber. This is his request:
quote:do you have any info on the origins of the berber language branch of afro-asiatic? How do they tie into the origins of proto-afro-asiatic, and how recent is their group?
I don't know that much about Berber, to express perfect honesty. Does anyone with greater knowledge in this area have an answer for his question?
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Berber is tied to the expansion of Afroasiatic from the Horn of Africa see: The evidence presented by Wetterstrom (10) indicates that early African farmers in the Fayum initially incorporated Near Eastern domesticates into an indigenous foraging strategy, and only over time developed a dependence on horticulture. This is inconsistent with inmigrating farming settlers, who would have brought a more abrupt change in subsistence strategy. The same archaeological pattern occurs west of Egypt, where domestic animals and, later, grains were gradually adopted after 8000 yr B.P. into the established pre-agricultural Capsian culture, present across the northern Sahara since 10,000 yr B.P. (11). From this continuity, it has been argued that the pre–foodproduction Capsian peoples spoke languages ancestral to the Berber and/or Chadic branches of Afroasiatic, placing the proto- Afroasiatic period distinctly before 10,000 yr B.P. (8). Furthermore, there is evidence that cattle domestication occurred independently in the early Holocene eastern Sahara, earlier than in the Near East (12), casting doubt on the idea of a single origin of food production in the Levant.
A critical reading of genetic data analyses, specifically those of Y chromosome phylogeography and TaqI 49a,f haplotypes, supports the hypothesis of populations moving from the Horn or southeastern Sahara northward to the Nile Valley, northwest Africa, the Levant, and Aegean (13–15). The geography of the M35/215 (or 215/M35) lineage, which is of Horn/East African origin, is largely concordant with the range of Afroasiatic languages. Underhill et al. state that this lineage was carried from Africa during the “Mesolithic” (13). The distributions of the Afroasiatic branches and this lineage can best be explained by invoking movements that originated in Africa and occurred before the emergence of food production, as well as after. CHRISTOPHER EHRET,1 S. O. Y. KEITA,2 PAUL NEWMAN3 Science 306: 1680-81 (2007)
Posts: 833 | From: Austin, TX | Registered: Jan 2007
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Two other lessons have particular applicability to Afroasiatic. For one, the northerly Afroasiatic languages (Semitic, Berber, Egyptian) appear together to form just one sub-branch of the family, and if relied upon to the exclusion of the other, deeper, branchings of the family, give a misleading picture of overall Afroasiatic reconstruction. In addition, Afroasiatic is a family of much greater time depth than even most of its students realize; its first divergences trace back probably at least 15,000 years ago, not just 8,000 or 9,000 as many believe. - Ehret: Reflections on Reconstructing Proto-Afroasiatic: Vowels, Tone, Consonants, and Vocabulary
..and why not add, the seemingly forgotten other excerpts cited on the first page of this topic:
“The Semitic family can also trace their origins from this area in north-eastern Africa. Most modern experts hold the theory that the Semitic precursor-language must have at first existed in a cluster with ancient Egyptian and Berber, before exiting into its unique form. However the timing for these events is quite difficult to discern. The Semitic language-precursor being, for our purposes, the "last" language in formation, was somehow transported into Arabia and further east into central and northern Asia.”
Tonal languages appear in the Omotic, Chadic, and South and East Cushitic branches of Afro-Asiatic, according to Ehret (1996). The Semitic, Berber, and Egyptian branches do not use tones phonemically.
From what I can tell, they are indeed closely related; Beja seems to be grammatically more similar to the "Berber" languages than other Cushitic languages. This is understandable if "Berber" and "Beja" diverged from a branch of an already differentiated "Proto-Afrasan" language, with perhaps Beja being the older. Indeed, there might well be something to Sforza's observation that Tuaregs ["Berber" speakers] were least genetically distant to the Beja. The non-tonal languages of Egyptic, 'Berber' and 'Semitic' branches cluster relatively closely in comparison to other Afrasan languages, while they are more grammatically similar to Beja than other groups under the Cushitic sub-family. Omotic, Chadic and Cushitic sub-families largely consist of tonal languages, perhaps exemplifying [possibly older] branches relatively closer to the ancestral proto-Afrasan language. Chadic and Berber may have seen enough inter-influences via interactions of moving populations, to entice some scholars to closely associate them; however, again, Berber languages are considered non-tonal, while Chadic groups are largely considered otherwise. Ethio-Semitic languages too have heavily been influenced by Cushitic languages like say, the Agaw.
Jomo here, has mentioned something worth noting, about the E-M81 availability in Sudan, where according to him via correspondence with Underhill, occurred in two individuals who happened to be of Beja extraction. Given that certain genetic comparisons [C. Sforza, see genetic distances data] have been made between Tuaregs and Beja, revealing close genetic distance, this would be interesting in that light, 'cause the Tuaregs have the characteristic 'Berber' signature of M81. Where do most of Beja groups reside? Sudan. Given this piece of info, it is possible that the Beja and the West African Sahelian groups like the Tuaregs and the north-eastern Siwa ["Berber"] group, notably bearing E3b ancestry [amongst others], stem from a common ancestral population, having diverged somewhere in the Sahara, perhaps in the vicinity of its eastern end. I suspect somewhere between upper Egypt and Sudan; the eastern portion of Chad and south-eastern portion of Libya are not to be excluded in this assessment, imo.
Basically summing it up, aside from introduction of new UEPs, i.e. V36 and V65, the study shifts the origin of M78 northward [from my own inference, likely in the vicinity of Upper Egypt, based on the highest frequencies], having found high microsatellite diversity and frequency distribution both in "north-eastern Africa" and "eastern Africa", but deeming north-eastern Africa as having the upper-hand on those accounts, as well as in terms of M78 sub-clade diveristy in the comparative analysis, AFTER the removal of the DYS19 microsatellite locus, otherwise known by its gamma cluster [whose contribution was deemed to have lent bias towards the east African chromosomes]. The authors hypothesize that M78 in eastern Africa may reflect back-migration from north-east Africa, and hence, any wonder that the regions between Upper Egypt and sub-Saharan East Africa cannot be overlooked, as done in this piece. To this end, when one also looks at language distribution in the East African region, there seems to be a trend in loss of the 'tonal' feature of Afrasan sub-language families as one moves further north. If the proposals of this study are to be given weight, and going by the concentration of 'tonal' Afrasan languages in sub-Saharan East Africa, while the Sahara appears to be a host in a 'middle-of-the-road’ kind of way [with ’Berber’ [non-tonal], and Chadic groups [tonal]] to the 'tonal' and 'non-tonal' Afrasan languages, is it possible that the languages diverged in the vicinity of eastern Sahara ca. ~ 15 ky ago or so [from the proto-Afrasan language of the ancestral E3b (M35) carriers from [sub-Saharan] "eastern Africa", with the largely 'tonal' Afrasan speaking groups back-migrating southbound to sub-Saharan East Africa, while the fore-bearers of 'non-tonal' groups expanded north ward, and westward in north Africa and the Sahara, although some remained within the vicinity of eastern Sahara, and at some point a sub-set of this group back-migrated south-bound to the regions were the 'tonal' groups are largely located, in the African Horn? This would perhaps explain why some Semitic speaking groups in the African Horn have noticeable frequencies of ancient Y lineages like haplogroups A and B. In any case, the linguistic distribution and phylum is another reason that this expanse between Egypt [where M78 origins may lie according to this study], and [sub-Saharan] "eastern Africa" should not be overlooked. http://www.egyptsearch.com/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=004889;p=2
If we are to keep in mind the above mentioned language “nature” and divergence of the Afrasan groups [with the help of insights from linguists like Ehret], along with lineage expansions, as observed by the likes of Underhill, Luis et al. [“Nile Valley vs. the African Horn”] and Arredi et al., not to mention Cruciani’s latest ‘re-organization’ attempts, then it would appear that the ancestors of the “Berber” groups diverged from within the general vicinity of between Egypt and Sudan to the Chadic areas, or in the southern portions of the eastern desert of Egypt ca. 5ky ago or so, and thence, moved northward., while others moved westward in the Saharan-Sahelian belts. By ca. 2ky ago sections of these earlier “Berber” populations would have expanded westward in the north, whereby in what is known as founder effect, underwent considerable demographic expansion. Throughout prehistory and history, some of these more mobile “Berber” groups, like those in the Sahel and the Sahara, may have moved back and forth, i.e. from the north back to the Saharan regions and vice versa. For instance, it isn’t surprising that Saharan/Sahelian “Berber” groups like the Sanhaja closely resemble sections of northern-based groups like the Kesra of Tunisia, and indeed, the Sahelian “Berber” groups have a history of setting up socio-cultural complexes or “empires” in coastal North Africa by way of conquests. It would appear that the “Berber” groups likely diverged from the same populations ancestral to the contemporary Bedawi in the Red Hills regions of Sudan [e.g. see above: Underhill for indicators]. The Beja language, which is viewed by some linguists to be a somewhat distant relative of Cushitic languages, is perceived to be relatively closer to the non-tonal Egyptic, and other [generally perceived] younger non-tonal branches of “Berber” and “Semitic” than the largely tonal Afrasan groups in sub-Saharan east Africa. The Chadic branches, which are perceived to be largely tonal, undoubtedly have some level of closeness with “Berber” languages given the proximity and interactions of these groups in the Saharan-Sahel regions…just as Ethio-semitic languages have some level of closeness with the Cushitic languages therein due to years of interaction and cohabitation.
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Now, considering the following from the intro compilation…
1)After 12,000 BCE: Beginning of a wetter phase in Africa north of the equator. Populations ancestral to most West Africans make up the foragers and hunters of these lands.
"by" 11,000 years BP ~ by 13,000 BC:
"The age of the sediment in which they were found suggests that the six ceramic fragments discovered between 2002 and 2005 are at least 11,400 years old. Most ancient ceramics from the Middle East and the central and eastern Sahara regions are 10,000 and between 9-10,000 years old, respectively." [source: Simon Bradley, Swissinfo, Swiss Archaeologist Digs Up West Africa's Past ]
Considering that many contemporary West Africans are of the PN2 derived lineages, amongst which E3a is notable [arose ~18.8 +/- 2.4 ky ago according to Semino et al. 2004] , could these repopulation events have included not only earlier groups in the region, but new groups from perhaps central and eastern Sahara, and possibly sub-Saharan east Africa via central Africa, which was marked by new inventions in the region by these new communities as social adaptation in response to the new set of environmental conditions, which according to the above source, i.e. Swissinfo article, could have been(?):
Some 10,000 years ago, at the end of the ice age, the climate is thought to have fluctuated between warm and cold periods. This led to the formation of an 800 kilometre wide band of tropical vegetation extending northwards from the Sahel region, which attracted people who slowly moved north from southern and central Africa.
Wild grasses and pearl millet started sprouting on the former desert land. But for man to be able to eat and properly digest the new plants, they had to be stored and cooked in pots. - S. Bradley, Swissinfo
2)6,000-2,500 BCE: Spread of predominantly cattle-raising peoples throughout the Sahara. Probably ancestral to modern-day Berber groups.
According to various studies published in the recent past, the original “Berbers” developed in East Africa, likely in northeastern Africa [if we go by Cruciani et al. 2007] - in the southern reaches of the western desert of Egypt, at an upper limit of ca. 7000 years ago [Arredi et al.], with population expansions occurring in northwestern Africa by 2ky ago ~ 4th millennium BC or so [Luis et al.]. Semino et al. put the characteristic “Berber” haplotype [designated E-M81] at an age of ca. 8.6 +/- 2.3 ky ago; this age would correspond to the original “Berber” groups who expanded from northeast Africa.
With that said, here’s an earlier post from elsewhere with minor modification, with attention to dating on the “Berber” group development…
Goes to back-to-back posts like this:
Two other lessons have particular applicability to Afroasiatic. For one, the northerly Afroasiatic languages (Semitic, Berber, Egyptian) appear together to form just one sub-branch of the family, and if relied upon to the exclusion of the other, deeper, branchings of the family, give a misleading picture of overall Afroasiatic reconstruction. In addition, Afroasiatic is a family of much greater time depth than even most of its students realize; its first divergences trace back probably at least 15,000 years ago, not just 8,000 or 9,000 as many believe. - Ehret: Reflections on Reconstructing Proto-Afroasiatic: Vowels, Tone, Consonants, and Vocabulary
..and why not add, the following:
“The Semitic family can also trace their origins from this area in north-eastern Africa. Most modern experts hold the theory that the Semitic precursor-language must have at first existed in a cluster with ancient Egyptian and Berber, before exiting into its unique form. However the timing for these events is quite difficult to discern. The Semitic language-precursor being, for our purposes, the "last" language in formation, was somehow transported into Arabia and further east into central and northern Asia.”
Tonal languages appear in the Omotic, Chadic, and South and East Cushitic branches of Afro-Asiatic, according to Ehret (1996). The Semitic, Berber, and Egyptian branches do not use tones phonemically.
From what I can tell, they are indeed closely related; Beja seems to be grammatically more similar to the "Berber" languages than other Cushitic languages. This is understandable if "Berber" and "Beja" diverged from a branch of an already differentiated "Proto-Afrasan" language, with perhaps Beja being the older. Indeed, there might well be something to Sforza's observation that Tuaregs ["Berber" speakers] were least genetically distant to the Beja. The non-tonal languages of Egyptic, 'Berber' and 'Semitic' branches cluster relatively closely in comparison to other Afrasan languages, while they are more grammatically similar to Beja than other groups under the Cushitic sub-family. Omotic, Chadic and Cushitic sub-families largely consist of tonal languages, perhaps exemplifying [possibly older] branches relatively closer to the ancestral proto-Afrasan language. Chadic and Berber may have seen enough inter-influences via interactions of moving populations, to entice some scholars to closely associate them; however, again, Berber languages are considered non-tonal, while Chadic groups are largely considered otherwise. Ethio-Semitic languages too have heavily been influenced by Cushitic languages like say, the Agaw.
Jomo here, has mentioned something worth noting, about the E-M81 availability in Sudan, where according to him via correspondence with Underhill, occurred in two individuals who happened to be of Beja extraction. Given that certain genetic comparisons [C. Sforza, see genetic distances data] have been made between Tuaregs and Beja, revealing close genetic distance, this would be interesting in that light, 'cause the Tuaregs have the characteristic 'Berber' signature of M81. Where do most of Beja groups reside? Sudan. Given this piece of info, it is possible that the Beja and the West African Sahelian groups like the Tuaregs and the north-eastern Siwa ["Berber"] group, notably bearing E3b ancestry [amongst others], stem from a common ancestral population, having diverged somewhere in the Sahara, perhaps in the vicinity of its eastern end. I suspect somewhere between upper Egypt and Sudan; the eastern portion of Chad and south-eastern portion of Libya are not to be excluded in this assessment, imo.
Basically summing it up, aside from introduction of new UEPs, i.e. V36 and V65, the study shifts the origin of M78 northward [from my own inference, likely in the vicinity of Upper Egypt, based on the highest frequencies], having found high microsatellite diversity and frequency distribution both in "north-eastern Africa" and "eastern Africa", but deeming north-eastern Africa as having the upper-hand on those accounts, as well as in terms of M78 sub-clade diveristy in the comparative analysis, AFTER the removal of the DYS19 microsatellite locus, otherwise known by its gamma cluster [whose contribution was deemed to have lent bias towards the east African chromosomes]. The authors hypothesize that M78 in eastern Africa may reflect back-migration from north-east Africa, and hence, any wonder that the regions between Upper Egypt and sub-Saharan East Africa cannot be overlooked, as done in this piece. To this end, when one also looks at language distribution in the East African region, there seems to be a trend in loss of the 'tonal' feature of Afrasan sub-language families as one moves further north. If the proposals of this study are to be given weight, and going by the concentration of 'tonal' Afrasan languages in sub-Saharan East Africa, while the Sahara appears to be a host in a 'middle-of-the-road’ kind of way [with ’Berber’ [non-tonal], and Chadic groups [tonal]] to the 'tonal' and 'non-tonal' Afrasan languages, is it possible that the languages diverged in the vicinity of eastern Sahara ca. ~ 15 ky ago or so [from the proto-Afrasan language of the ancestral E3b (M35) carriers from [sub-Saharan] "eastern Africa", with the largely 'tonal' Afrasan speaking groups back-migrating southbound to sub-Saharan East Africa, while the fore-bearers of 'non-tonal' groups expanded north ward, and westward in north Africa and the Sahara, although some remained within the vicinity of eastern Sahara, and at some point a sub-set of this group back-migrated south-bound to the regions were the 'tonal' groups are largely located, in the African Horn? This would perhaps explain why some Semitic speaking groups in the African Horn have noticeable frequencies of ancient Y lineages like haplogroups A and B. In any case, the linguistic distribution and phylum is another reason that this expanse between Egypt [where M78 origins may lie according to this study], and [sub-Saharan] "eastern Africa" should not be overlooked. http://www.egyptsearch.com/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=004889;p=2
If we are to keep in mind the above mentioned language “nature” and divergence of the Afrasan groups [with the help of insights from linguists like Ehret], along with lineage expansions, as observed by the likes of Underhill, Luis et al. [“Nile Valley vs. the African Horn”] and Arredi et al., not to mention Cruciani’s latest ‘re-organization’ attempts, then it would appear that the ancestors of the “Berber” groups diverged from within the general vicinity of between Egypt and Sudan to the Chadic areas, or in the southern portions of the western [although the eastern desert cannot be ruled out in the assessment] desert of Egypt ca. 6-7ky ago or so, and thence, moved northward., while others moved westward in the Saharan-Sahelian belts. By ca. 2ky, or more likely 3ky ago sections of these earlier “Berber” populations would have expanded westward in the north, whereby in what is known as founder effect, underwent considerable demographic expansion. Throughout prehistory and history, some of these more mobile “Berber” groups, like those in the Sahel and the Sahara, may have moved back and forth, i.e. from the north back to the Saharan regions and vice versa. For instance, it isn’t surprising that Saharan/Sahelian “Berber” groups like the Sanhaja closely resemble sections of northern-based groups like the Kesra of Tunisia, and indeed, the Sahelian “Berber” groups have a history of setting up socio-cultural complexes or “empires” in coastal North Africa by way of conquests. It would appear that the “Berber” groups likely diverged from the same populations ancestral to the contemporary Bedawi in the Red Hills regions of Sudan [e.g. see above: Underhill for indicators]. The Beja language, which is viewed by some linguists to be a somewhat distant relative of Cushitic languages, is perceived to be relatively closer to the non-tonal Egyptic, and other [generally perceived] younger non-tonal branches of “Berber” and “Semitic” than the largely tonal Afrasan groups in sub-Saharan east Africa. The Chadic branches, which are perceived to be largely tonal, undoubtedly have some level of closeness with “Berber” languages given the proximity and interactions of these groups in the Saharan-Sahel regions…just as Ethio-semitic languages have some level of closeness with the Cushitic languages therein due to years of interaction and cohabitation.
posted
^ Yes, I hope all of the info Mystery presented has answered your questions, T-rex.
Posts: 26239 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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Igor Diakonoff (1988) suggested that the Urheimat of Afro-Asiatic was in the South Eastern Sahara, between Tibesti and Darfur. Martin Bernal (1980) also suggests an African origin. Quoted by Bomhard, he states that “archaeological evidence from the Magreb, the Sudan and east Africa [makes it seem] permissible to postulate at least three branches of Afroasiatic existed by the 8th millennium BCE”. Christopher Ehret also suggested an east African origin for proto-afroasiatic.
The spread of Afro-Asiatic languages has recently been linked to the evolution of the Y chromosomal E3b Haplogroup. About 21-25 000 years ago the subbranch E3b arose in East Africa and spread northward into North Africa and West Asia, splitting further into another three haplogroups: haplogroup E3b3 spent the last ice age in the Levant and north-east Africa, E3b2 was present in the Maghreb and today it is the most important haplogroup of the Berbers; E3b1 originated in East Africa and after the end of the ice age, it expanded north and west. The spreading of E3b1 is probably connected with the spread of the Afro-Asiatic languages from east africa.
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And thus was put to rest the nonsense idea that the ancient ancestral populations to Northern Africa and the Sahara originated with migrations of pale skinned populations from Asia and Europe to the region.
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^ Yes, also known as the Hamite myth, which is what led to the death of Hamito-Semitic language catagory.
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